Wendt Sells Chopping Line to Blase Brothers

The equipment company Wendt Corp., based in Tonawanda, N.Y., has announced the sale of a high-volume MTB copper and aluminum chopping line to Blase Brothers, a company owned by Gary, Craig and Kevin Blase. The three had sold their former company, Blaze Recycling & Metals, to a private equity firm in 2007 and were under a five-year non-compete clause. The MTB chopping line is the first piece of equipment the newly formed company has purchased.

The Blase brothers, in the scrap metal business for more than 20 years, had at one time operated three auto shredding plants.

“This plant is going to be fun for us. It’s all about getting back to our roots in wire chopping. There is an art to the chopping business and it’s something that we really enjoy and look forward to. Our main objective is to really build and invest in this business venture,” Gary Blase says.

In August 2012, the company purchased a 30-acre facility in Lithonia, Ga. The facility features a 60,000 square-foot building, which will house the wire chopping installation. After the installation of the MTB wire chopping line, scheduled to be complete by 2013, the brothers expect to add more equipment, including a non-ferrous baler and purchasing an auto shredder, as well as a non-ferrous downstream plant to aid in wire recovery. Gary Blase says the company has already begun sourcing feedstock material for their aluminum and copper chopping line.

“After visiting the MTB processing facility in France, the explanation of the equipment just did not do the equipment justice,” Gary Blase says. “When we saw the capabilities of the equipment and the variety of materials that we could process, we were very confident and excited about the MTB line. We realized that this equipment will give us the opportunity to process materials that many do not have the ability to do at this time and we look forward to that advantage in the marketplace.”

The company while target insulated copper wire from automobile shredder residue (ASR).

The MTB copper and aluminum chopping line is fully automated and includes the latest models of pre-choppers, granulators and vibratory screens that MTB offers. The high-production chopping line features a BDR 2400, two BAT 1600 granulators, air density separators and vibrating screens. The all-purpose chopping line has the ability to process material including; aluminum and copper cables, twitch, aluminum and copper radiators, ACSR, as well as, ICW from ASR.

Wendt is the exclusive strategic partner and distributer in North America for MTB equipment, parts and service. MTB has more than 30 years of experience manufacturing wire and cable chopping systems. The company also says it is France’s largest processor, with more than 30,000 tons of copper and aluminum cables processed each year. As a processor, MTB provides new applications and designs to deliver robust and purpose built machines for wire and cable chopping, granulating, sorting, cleaning and sizing.

The Blase brothers will be breaking ground in early December on a two-story scale house and begin other preparations for their new facility. They anticipate having their MTB aluminum and copper chopping line operational in the fourth quarter of 2013.